First: PLEASE PING ME FOR ANYTHING BASED OFF THIS. It looks very fun ^^
Some comments based on @
dreamtime's ideas (and others as well):
Water: Trying not to get too perpetual-motion-y, but that water IS going to need to circulate... I dunno, I can see Water having (secret?) biotech components as well. Or maybe they just use space-leviathans for their ships?
Nature: Giant solar panels will need giant batteries for interstellar travel. I agree with Nature ships being pure biotech, possibly similar to Juraian tree-ships?
Plague: Definitely scavengers/retrofitters, definitely biotech, probably zerg.
Fire: “The sun is a mass of incandescent gas; a gigantic
nuclear furnace” (emphasis mine)
I figure Fire ships would be powered by “traditional” fusion generators. (Possibly fission generators as a backup, or on older vessels?)
Earth: ..I have no idea. Maybe
these guys still use fission generators? :/
Arcane: One of my dragons already has a prototype personal-use Fold drive from a Arcane clan—besides, “magic” is just sufficiently-advanced technology, right? ;p
Arcanist is probably the only one with sufficient astrogation skillz and data to get a artificial-wormhole -style drive to work, IMO.
I'm going to assume they've managed to get point-source/vacuum-energy to actually WORK, but each clan keeps voiding the warranty on theirs in new and interesting ways XD
Shadow: They're just Romulans playing at being Ferengi--or is it the other way around?. Even if you can
find one of their ships, you'll never know what
really powers it (lol)
(If the Shade isn't represented by the spider-ships from Babylon5, then that's what I'll imagine Shadow Fleet uses)
Wind: Solar sails and planetary-flight specialists? Eh, I guess so. They'll still want something better than hitchhiking for interstellar flight, though.
Ice: Not needing as much energy for heating helps during interstellar flight... though it makes interplanetary flight a bit more difficult. (they'd have to find ways to store the solar heat, or just be able to channel it around the ship or summat)
Probably also using old-or-scavenged main power sources, though. Lots of Ancient Tech available here.
Light: mini neutron star, or just naked singularity?